The Liberal Party's George Cash and Ray Halligan are not contesting the 2008 election. The Labor Party's Graham Gifford is contesting the lower house electorate of Swan Hills.

2005 Result

Party

Votes

% Vote

Swing

Quotas

SeatsWon

SeatsChange

Labor Party

144,921

42.4

+5.4

3.39

3

..

Liberal Party

137,888

40.3

+1.9

3.23

3

..

Greens

30,065

8.8

-0.9

0.70

1

..

Christian Democrats

8,130

2.4

..

0.19

..

..

Family First

6,370

1.9

+1.9

0.15

..

..

Australian Democrats

3,726

1.1

-3.2

0.09

..

..

One Nation

3,123

0.9

-5.2

0.07

..

..

Others

7,627

2.2

+0.1

0.18

..

..

Formal

341,850

97.1

7

Informal

10,295

2.9

+0.3

Total Votes

352,145

90.5

-0.2

Roll

388,999

Quota

42,732

Redistribution

ALP

LIB

GRN

NAT

CDP

FFP

ONP

DEM

OTH

% Votes - Old Bundaries

42.4

40.3

8.8

..

2.4

1.9

0.9

1.1

2.2

% Vote - New Boundaries

40.5

42.1

8.9

..

2.4

1.8

0.9

1.1

2.3

Quotas - Old Boundaries

3.39

3.23

0.70

..

0.16

0.15

0.07

0.09

0.18

Quotas - New Boundaries

2.83

2.95

0.62

..

0.16

0.13

0.06

0.08

0.16

Discussion: The number of seats in North Metropolitan region has been cut from seven to six, and this has the result of making it harder for the Greens to win a seat. With seven members, the Labor and Liberal Parties used to fill three quotas at 37.5% of the vote, and any vote above that level was surplus and usually went to help elect the Greens to the seventh seat. With only six seats, the two major parties reach three quotas at 42.9% of the vote, and as the 2005 result shows, this puts both major parties close to three quotas. A repeat of the 2005 result in North Metropolitan Region would elect three Labor and three Liberal MLCs, and result in the defeat of the Greens Giz Watson. The Greens need to increase their primary vote compared to 2005, and would also hope that the vote for one of the major parties falls below 40%.